Pfizer announced that the investigational antibody-drug conjugate inotuzumab ozogamicin received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
The Breakthrough Therapy designation was based on the results of the phase III...

As reported by Falini et al in a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, dactinomycin treatment resulted in morphologic and molecular complete remission ongoing at 14 months in a patient with NPM1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
NPM1-mutated AML may account for one-third of AML in...

Bone marrow transplantation is a lifesaving therapy for many patients with blood cancers like leukemias and lymphomas. Currently, the gold standard blood-generating stem cells are obtained from a donor, most likely a sibling, with a perfect match to the patient in order to minimize the chance of...

In the first trial of the University of Pennsylvania's personalized cellular therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), 8 of 14 patients responded to the therapy, with some complete remissions continuing past 4.5 years. These results, published by Porter et al in Science Translational...

A small phase I/IIa study of third-generation CD19 CAR (chimeric-antigen receptor) T-cell therapy combined with chemotherapy pretreatment has resulted in complete responses in 6 of the 11 patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma and leukemia enrolled in the study. Although CAR T-cell...

In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Petersdorf et al found a greater risk of acute graft-vs-host disease among hematopoietic cell transplant recipients with the high-expression rs9277534G allele linked to mismatched HLA-DPB1 who received transplants from donors with the...

In a study reported in JAMA, Klco et al found that persistence of leukemia-associated mutations in ≥ 5% of bone marrow cells at remission predicted poorer outcome among patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), including those with intermediate-risk disease.
Study Details
In the study,...

In two phase II studies reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Tiacci et al found that the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) produced responses in nearly all patients with BRAF V600E–positive hairy cell leukemia who relapsed after treatment with a purine analog or who had...

In a phase III VALOR trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ravandi et al found that the addition of the quinolone derivative vosaroxin to cytarabine did not significantly improve overall survival in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, differences favoring...

A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, reveals a protein’s critical—and previously unknown—role in the development and progression of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The finding offers a novel target for better treating AML, and...

A study published by Bianchi et al in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that genetic test results revealed by noninvasive prenatal testing for fetal chromosomal abnormalities may detect underlying conditions in the mother, including cancer. The study reports on a case...

Laboratory and animal tests of the type II inhibitor CHZ868, which stabilizes the kinase domain in an inactive conformation, are showing that the compound is highly potent against B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALLs) with CRLF2 rearrangements. When combined with dexamethasone, CHZ868 induced ...

The costs associated with cancer drug prices have risen dramatically over the past 15 years, a trend concerning to many oncologists. In a new analysis, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center concluded that the majority of existing treatments for hematologic cancers are...

The results of a nearly 10-year investigation that identified a key gene mutation that can trigger acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and several other types of cancer were recently published by Noetzli et al in Nature Genetics.
The findings have, for the first time, pinpointed a mutation that...

Blood and marrow transplantation is a potentially curative treatment for patients with leukemia or other life-threating blood diseases. With a goal of increasing survival rates, a research team led by Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) investigators verified patient outcome data submitted by more ...

In an analysis of Children’s Oncology Group (COG) trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chow et al found that dexrazoxane use did not appear to be associated with poorer survival among pediatric patients with leukemia or lymphoma in long-term follow-up.
Study Details
The...

In a UK study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gale et al found that presence of DNMT3A mutations was associated with poorer prognosis in young adults with cytogenetic intermediate-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) irrespective of the presence of NPM1 mutation. Poorer outcome was found ...

Survivors of childhood cancer in recent eras have shown a significant reduction in late mortality, and “for the first time, we have been able to attribute that to fewer deaths from treatment-related causes or fewer deaths from late effects of the primary therapy,” Gregory T....

First results from a randomized phase III study show that the combination of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and bendamustine (Treanda)/rituximab (Rituxan) improves outcomes for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) that progressed despite prior therapy. At a median follow-up of 17 months,...

A new study links a father's age at birth to the risk that his child will develop blood and immune system cancers as an adult, particularly for only children. The study, published by Teras et al in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found no association between having an older mother and these...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted Fast Track designation to AG-120 for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia who harbor an isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation. Agios Pharmaceuticals’ AG-120 is a first-in-class, oral, selective, potent inhibitor of the...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to AbbVie’s investigational agent venetoclax (ABT-199) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in patients with the 17p deletion.
Venetoclax is an investigational oral...

Initial intensive induction chemotherapy may be of benefit in a subgroup of newly diagnosed elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a study by Ross et al in Oncology Research. However, relapse rates remained high.
Elderly patients with AML generally experience worse...

In the phase III COMPLEMENT 1 trial reported in The Lancet, Hillmen et al found that the addition of the anti-CD20 antibody ofatumumab (Arzerra) to chlorambucil (Leukeran) increased progression-free survival among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who were not considered candidates...

In a retrospective single-center study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rozovski and colleagues found that chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients with disease progression after allogeneic stem cell transplantation had a relatively good prognosis, with apparent benefit of salvage...

More than 60% of patients with Epstein-Barr virus–associated lymphoproliferative disorder (EBV-LPD) that was nonresponsive to standard rituximab (Rituxan) treatment responded to a new type of immunotherapy called Epstein-Barr virus–specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (EBV-CTL) therapy....

In a Children’s Oncology Group study (COG-AALL03N1) reported in JAMA Oncology, Bhatia et al found that < 95% adherence to mercaptopurine treatment was associated with a nearly threefold increase in the risk of relapse in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Among adherent...

Most patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who discontinued ibrutinib (Imbruvica) early “were difficult to treat and had poor outcomes,” according to a study of patients enrolled in four different clinical trials of ibrutinib, with or without rituximab...

In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stone et al found that the combination of cytarabine and amonafide L-malate, a DNA intercalator and non–ATP-dependent topoisomerase II inhibitor, did not improve complete remission rate compared with cytarabine plus...

In a European trial (Berlin-Frankfurt-Muenster study group trial ALL-SCT-BFM 2003) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Peters et al found no difference in event-free survival with stem cell transplantation using matched unrelated vs sibling donors in pediatric patients with high-risk...

According to a prospective study led by researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, measuring the concentration of leukemia cells in patient bone marrow during the first 46 days of chemotherapy may help boost survival of young leukemia patients by better matching patients with the right...

The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project reports that a highly aggressive form of leukemia in infants has surprisingly few mutations beyond the chromosomal rearrangement that affects the MLL gene. The findings, reported by Andersson et al ...

In a single-center study reported in JAMA Oncology, Maddocks et al found that Richter’s transformation accounted for early progression-related discontinuation of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and that CLL progression but not Richter’s...

At a median follow-up of 3 years, ibrutinib (Imbruvica) demonstrated continued activity with durable responses that improved in quality with extended treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In addition, grade 3 toxicity and adverse events leading to discontinuation diminished ...

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified the first genetic variation that is associated with an increased risk and severity of peripheral neuropathy following treatment with a widely used anticancer drug. Investigators also found evidence of how it may be possible to...

Individuals previously infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) that receive chemotherapy or immunosuppressive treatment may be at risk of reactivating the virus, according to a report published by Di Bisceglie et al in Hepatology. Reactivation of HBV can be fatal, and researchers suggest routine...

In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Farooqui et al found that single-agent ibrutinib (Imbruvica) had good activity in patients with previously untreated or relapse/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with TP53 aberrations.
Study Details
In this single-arm trial, 51...

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovered about 10% of young leukemia patients of East Asian ancestry inherit a gene variation that is associated with reduced tolerance of a drug that is indispensable for curing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood ...

Chemotherapy resistance is one of the most formidable obstacles to treating acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer. Now researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have designed and developed a new protein-based therapy that may prove highly...

A genomic study of cancer patients previously treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy found that TP53 mutations may play a role in the development of treatment-related acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome, according to a report by Wong et al in Nature. However, the...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation to Celator Pharmaceuticals’ investigational agent CPX-351, a liposomal formulation of cytarabine-daunorubicin, for the treatment of elderly patients with secondary acute myeloid leukemia.
The FDA established the...

A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) describes a novel marker that might help doctors choose the least toxic, most effective treatment for many...

An oral targeted drug has shown encouraging activity and tolerable side effects in patients with treatment-resistant or relapsed acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a poor-prognosis group with few options, reported investigators from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and The University of Texas MD...

Common variations in four genes related to brain inflammation or cells′ response to damage from oxidation may contribute to the problems with memory, learning, and other cognitive functions seen in children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to a study presented at the...